User reviews

Compared to today's line-readers sometimes called, "actors," this cast is first-rate. A bit corny, perhaps, but so is Gone With the Wind. The film hit a nerve with 1947 audiences who were dreaming their war dead might return. Watch it with that thought in mind and you'll shed tears.

The film keeps replaying and replaying Charles Williams' "Dream of Olwen" a perhaps little too much, but I don't tire of it. For over 50 years, "Dream of Olwen" has been one of my favorite musical pieces. Not until recently did I learn that it came from this film.

The young amnesiac woman who visits on the night of the 25th anniversary of the death of Julia's sister, Olwen, brings too many coincidental similarities to Olwen. The story is an wonderful original mystery tale.

While I Live is directed by John Harlow and written by Robert Bell, John Harlow and Doreen Montgomery. It stars Tom Walls, Clifford Evans, Sonia Dresdel, Patricia Burke, John Warwick, Edward Lexy and Audrey Fildes. Music is by Charles Williams and cinematography by Freddie Young.

It has been 25 years since her composer sister died in tragic circumstance, but Julia Trevelyan (Dresdel) still obsesses over her. Then one day an amnesiac woman arrives at the family home looking for help, and now Julia is certain that she is the reincarnation of her beloved sister.

It has become one of those films more known for its theme music than for the film itself. For here we have Charles Williams' quite beautiful "The Dream of Olwen" featuring as a key part of the narrative. It's the piece of work that Olwen Trevelyan (Fildes) was struggling to finish before her untimely death. While it's undeniably the beating heart of the pic, it's a disservice to ignore what characteristic and narrative smarts are on show.

This is a fascinating delve into not only the world of amnesia, but also to that of grief as a sometimes unstoppable force. Thus with the setting to the tale being a cliff top dwelling in Cornwall, pic is ripe for ethereal tones and shadowy visuals, with the mystery of the amnesiac lady a constant intrigue. It's all very improbable of course, and much of the acting is of its time and very "correct" as it were, but this is a lovely film with sharp themes at the core, some nifty tech aspects on show and a bona fide classic piece of music driving it forward. 7.5/10

I could not have stated it better than Jeremy Ross (London).I watched the film too when I was a kid. I even remember that it was on a Sunday afternoon. Haven't seen it since. It must have been about 1963. I have lived in America since 1974 but I remember that there was very excellent TV pro grammes in England during the 60's, this film being one of them! The scene where Olwyn is standing at the edge of the cliff still sticks in my memory after all these years. I didn't actually know the name of the film it's self until I looked up the music (dream of Olwyn on You tube. If the film were available on DVD, I am sure it would appeal to a lot of people.

A little like the Nino Rota theme from the "Glass Mountain", this film is much more memorable for the beautiful, haunting melody "The Dream of Olwen" from Charles Williams than for it's acting. The story revolves around a spinster "Julia (Sonia Dresdel) who has been mourning the death of her musically gifted sister for a quarter of a century. Out of the blue, an amnesiac lady (Audrey Flides) arrives at their home and "Julia" soon becomes convinced that she is the reincarnation of her dead sibling. Not a view shared by everyone in the family - but, eerily, she has knowledge and habits common to the deceased. It's a gently presented melodrama - a good cast telling a charming tale that hasn't really much depth either in the plot or characterisation departments but tugs at the heart strings nonetheless...

I've seen this film dozens of times, albeit that the music "The Dream of Olwen" is the most haunting and beautiful piece and holds this film together, the acting and story line I find entertaining and most pleasant...It's a GREAT pity they don't make films like this now, instead of the some of the TRASH that is churned out.

I hope this film will soon be put to DVD and available in England. So many fine British films never seem to find their way to DVD of even become available to the British public

If you like truly great music (Written by Charles Williams) and a light yet very watchable film then this is for you, a haunting film that you will recall, and watch time and again..Excellent !

Like another reviewer on this board, I can't help but go against the grain and describe this film as tosh: moody, well-shot tosh perhaps, but tosh nonetheless. It has a nice bit of piano music in it which keeps popping up time after time, and the usual distinguished performances we see from British actors in the 1940s, but that's about it.

WHILE I LIVE has an arresting opening sequence which climaxes in a woman dropping off a Cornish clifftop. Years later, folk in the ancestral home question whether a mysterious young woman who has mysteriously arrived at the property is in fact the reincarnation of the dead woman. Yes, it's one of those melodramas with a spiritual edge, made as a result of the massive loss of life in the Second World War (just as WW1 heralded another mini-boom in spiritualism).

Sadly, WHILE I LIVE doesn't offer much in the way of mystery or depth, and after a while all of the brooding and endless dreamy moments become more than a little tiresome. I'm the sort of person who looks for incident in a film, whatever its type, and there just isn't enough of it here.

I remember seeing this film on TV as a boy in the late 50s/early 60s and have never forgotten it. Very powerful with wonderful music. The image of a sleep-walking woman on the cliffs sticks with me after 40 years.Would love to see it again, but for some reason it isn't regarded as Classic enough for release on DVD. Why doesn't someone release the theme tune as a single with clips from the film on the accompanying video? It worked for 'Love is all around me'... Have sometimes toyed with the idea of writing to Total Film and submitting candidates for the Top 100 British films which they never seem to mention, such as this and some of the best George Formby and Gracie Fields films. When I was a boy they were often on TV. Why aren't they now?

I have to disagree with all the other reviewers.Unfortunately this nothing but melodramatic tosh which because of its slightly spiritualistic theme was popular with audiences after the war since they were still grieving for those lost in the war.This film actually makes Madonna of the seven Moons seem to be a work of the realist school.The acting is rather hammy,Tom walls with his mummerset accent is particularly bad.The production generally poor and the script is just a laugh a minute.Every possible cliché of this type of film is piled on.Much as i love films of this era i have to say that i just found it to be preposterous nonsense but suited to the audience that viewed it.

it struck so powerfully when I was young it has stayed in my mind ever since. The daughter in her night dress, sleep walking on the top of a cliff on a windy rainy dark night, and going to throw herself over, as her mother had, but being rescued just in time by her boyfriend and another I think. My philosophical response to it in later years, was that in the event she didn't have to do what her mother had done. In adult interpretation this would be that the repetition compulsion had not had to be acted out. And that this was a deliverance. It must have some connection with my mother's early death from cancer. Jeremy Ross. AFECT film school. London

This film is only 80 minutes long, and yet it makes an impression of being at least 20 minutes longer. Although the action is mainly talk, the intrigue is so crowded with important questions of existence and identity, that the metaphysical issues and problems here almost burst the limits of the dimensions, especially that of time. The first part of the film happens in 1922, when a young oianist and composer (female) happens to a mortal accident, leaving her last compositiion unfinished. The rest of the film happens 25 years later and provides a tremendous intricacy of an existential experiment. The phenomenon can't just be brushed aside, as Christine tries to do away with it, but even if the problem ultimately is resolved by logic and rational therapy, the phenomen and experiment must remain as an unanswered question. You need to se this film several times and will probably still not quite understand it, as there are too many aspects on it to be fathomed and grasped at once, and even if you see it again and again, there will remain unanswered questions. This is a metaphysical phenomenon and nothing else, and only the old,Cornish gardener is competent enough to treat it the right way. It's one of the three great English musical films of the 40s, the others being "Dangerous Moonlight" (with the Warsaw Concerto) and "Cornish Rhapsody" with Stewart Gramger and Margaret Lockwood as the pilot and the pianist. They are all three unique and remarkable for their unsurpassed musical psychology, and this film is actually basically most about the mental strain of a pianist and composer who happens to be a woman. The risk is that you will find the film more fascinating and interesting every time you see it again.